The Ford Taurus was a hugely influential and successful American car, there’s no question about it. Its aerodynamic, premium styling was a breath of fresh air in a market full of angular Japanese and domestic family sedans. But it wasn’t the first front-wheel-drive domestic family sedan: both perennial underdog Chrysler and ailing juggernaut General Motors beat Ford to market.

From 1982 until 1990, the Celebrity was Chevrolet’s bread-and-butter intermediate. Its predecessor, the rear-wheel-drive Malibu, stuck around for a transition period before being retired after 1983. The related Monte Carlo had received a slick makeover and took the lion’s share of intermediate Chevy coupe sales; the Celebrity coupe was never a big seller and was axed after 1988. But year in, year out, the Celebrity sedan and wagon were a regular fixture in America’s Top 10 best-selling cars list, peaking at 404,833 sales in 1986. Ford wouldn’t top that production total with the Taurus until 1995, and that was with over 50% of sales going to fleets (although a large number of Celebrities likely went to fleets, too).

Another strong-selling Chevrolet had begat the Celebrity, the promising but disastrous Citation. A huge sales success out of the gates, the Citation was half-baked and rife with reliability and build quality issues. Although the Celebrity and Citation rode the same 104.9-inch wheelbase and basic chassis, it was 11 inches longer and looked completely different. The Celebrity also weighed around 400 pounds less than the Malibu. Engines were smaller too: buyers chose between a fuel-injected 2.5 90 hp “Iron Duke” four-cylinder or a carbureted 112 hp 2.8 V6. The following year, an 83 hp 4.3 V6 diesel joined the options list.

The Celebrity was careful not to ruffle feathers. The styling was clean, conservative and yet another example of the “Sheer Look” that had proliferated through the GM fleet. There may have been some shock at the Celebrity’s sticker price, however. Despite being heavily derivative of the Citation, the cheapest Celebrity was $2000 more than the base Citation. A four-cylinder Celebrity sedan was also $330 more expensive than a Malibu V6, and $30 more expensive than a Caprice Classic V8 sedan! Chevrolet general manager Robert J. Lund had declared Celebrity buyers wouldn’t be sacrificing comfort, space and prestige in the pursuit of economy. Perhaps they didn’t, but they were sacrificing a few more dollars in the process. Chevrolet would make a slight course correction with prices in 1983, dropping MSRPs by a few hundred dollars.

A faint nod was made to sportiness with the 1984 Eurosport, featuring blackout trim and a firmer F41 suspension tune. A handsome wagon also arrived for 1984 which could seat up to 8 and was also available in Eurosport trim. The Celebrity also received an optional four-speed manual and high-output, 135 hp version of the 2.8 V6 borrowed from the Citation X-11. Neither were as popular or as important to the Celebrity line, though, as the optional four-speed automatic available in V6 Celebrities.

Ticking the right option boxes could net you a fairly entertaining mid-sizer. With the F41 suspension, the HO 2.8 V6 and the four-speed automatic, the Celebrity hit 0-60 in just over 10 seconds and handling was responsive and crisp. But a large percentage of Celebrities were humble, Iron Duke, three-speed automatic sedans, considerably less fun to drive and featuring the same aging albeit space-efficient interior.

Perhaps the record high sales of the 1986 Celebrity was on account of the similarly-sized Citation’s demise. One could theorize, too, that the might of the new Taurus likely was to blame for Celebrity sales trailing off each year after ’86. This was despite a neat facelift that smoothed out the Celebrity’s profile. There were also some minor specification improvements including a Getrag 5-speed manual option for the V6, but the sporting Celebrities were generally seen as less polished and cohesive than other sporty A-Bodies like the Pontiac 6000 STE. For 1989, Celebrity lost its stickshift and coupe; for 1990, only the wagon remained, packing a bigger 3.1 V6.

While Chevy had beat Ford to the market with a FWD intermediate, they still ended up playing catch-up. By the end of the decade, the Celebrity’s angular styling was decidedly passé. The 1990 Lumina would bring aerodynamic styling a full 4 years after the Taurus. The Celebrity wagon was replaced by the Lumina APV minivan, with GM hedging their bets on the popularity of the minivan and again playing catch-up: although the Chevy Astro had launched just a year after the Mopar minivans, the APV more closely followed the template set by Chrysler. In all fairness, Ford had a similarly spotty minivan track record but they kept the Taurus wagon around for another 16 years.

Considering how successful the Celebrity was for General Motors, its surprising the name didn’t stick around longer than a single generation. Although quality and reliability wasn’t on the level as the Japanese, the Celebrity didn’t develop an abysmal reputation like the Citation. And although the Celebrity’s run was longer than a single generation of Accord or Camry, GM didn’t keep flogging the car for over a decade as it did with the related Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera.

North America’s roads were once full of Celebrities but now it has been almost completely forgotten. Blame the Taurus: Ford introduced high-style to a traditionally conservative segment, offered up polished road manners across the range, and generally offered greater quality and a more desirable package for private buyers. The Celebrity wasn’t a bad car although it could have used more polish. And it could have used a replacement in 1986 instead of 1990, although that story has already been told. At least the Celebrity can bask in the satisfaction of beating the Taurus to market.

37 Comments

Celebrity certainly made the most of a modest 104 in wheelbase. I’d argue (having been in the back seat of both) that the backseat of an A-body sedan was a more pleasant place to be than the backseat of a W-body. More leg room and the seats didn’t feel like they were on the floor.

I absolutely agree on the rear accommodations of the rear seating being better in the “A” than the “W” bodies. The “A”s may not have the ” wow” impact that Taurus had, But IMHO, they (Esp. the Buick and Oldsmobile versions) were first decent GM sedans after the 1977 “B/C” s. The Celebrity version was my favorite in styling followed by the 6000. The Celeb effectively pulled off the “smaller Caprice” look perfectly!

The rusty pictures make the point of how in rusty old bruiser form, the Celebrity was a car that served well over many years in the tradition of an old Chevelle. The four speed auto and mpfi 2.8 were very much in the small block/thm 350 tradition as well. Even the iron duke had a certain “superthrifty 6 vibe to it. All with 80s economy, safety, and smog standards. Chevy should have just called it a Chevelle.

People can and do wax about the revalation of their first VW or Honda. But there was just something about a solid American bruiser that can’t be duplicated and now only exists in trucks. A Daewoo, Suzuki, or Opel with a bowtie is just not the same.

Ugh. My parents bought a used one of these to replace a fox-body LTD. What a turd, I have no idea what my dad was thinking. While well used by the time they bought it, the yellowish tan over tan vinyl ’87 wagon with the Iron Duke could barely get out of its way and then had the proportioning valve issue that caused massive (and frightening to all road users) rear wheel lockup at any given time one was on the brakes. After my dad passed my mom bravely soldiered on with this thing until she finally saw the light a couple of years later and bought a new Focus ZX3.

I rented a 1986 Celebrity Eurosport wagon for a few months while I was on an enviro project in northern NJ. Black with a wine-red interior, the car was well-optioned despite being a four. It handled quite decently and even though it was no fireball off the line, it was a capable, comfortable, and entertaining drive – better than I expected especially since I was used to Hondas at that time as well as having driven Dad’s new Sable wagon. Granted, this gave me no personal insight as to long term durability, but I know for a fact that GM quality was all over the place in the ’80s and ’90s. A good example could last forever.

I had an ’86 with the 2.5 liter 4-cyl Iron Duke engine. I liked its practicality and clean, straight-edged styling. It was a rather stripped down version that did not have features like a passenger side door mirror, reclining seats, power locks, remote trunk release, a trip counter or a trunk light – things you’d take for granted in today’s cars. The distributor failed and the mechanic charged me extra to replace it since it was in a very difficult to reach area in the back of the engine. The steering rack suffered from the dreaded “morning sickness” syndrome that rendered the steering wheel very hard to turn when starting up the car. The TH-125 transmission started to slip and that’s when I had to bid goodbye to the car and scrap it.

“Perhaps the record high sales of the 1986 Celebrity was on account of the similarly-sized Citation’s demise.”

How can the Celebrity be similar in size with the Citation? The Celebrity was a good foot longer than the Citation and in fact the RWD and otherwise different 1982 Camaro was even closer to Celebrity’s size than the Citation. In addition, so were the Downsized 1986 FWD E-Cars. They were also similar in size with the Celebrity as well.

The Citation (and other GM A-Body cars) sat on the X-Body platform, with the same wheelbase. The passenger compartment was essentially the same, size-wise. The extra length is all from the longer front and rear overhangs.

I had no idea how these compared, price-wise, with other Chevys until now. Considering what a 4 cylinder powered Celebrity cost, people must have REALLY wanted to save money at the gas pump.
I am also surprised to learn that the Taurus was a “runner-up” in the sales race to the Celebrity.

A few weeks ago I found a diesel Celebrity sedan on the Gainesville Craigslist. The mileage was quoted at under 90,000 miles and from the picture it looked like they were all original miles.

In 1988, The Celebrity was cheaper than a Caprice again. In 1988 the prices were $10859 for the 2.2 Plymouth Caravelle 4dr. $11025 for the Celebrity 2.5 four door. $11380 for the Taurus 2.5. $12030 for the Caprice 4.3 four door.

For budget shoppers, or those with a taste for something different, an Eagle Medallian 2.2 was almost the same size and only cost $10434 but no bench seat was available.

I have an Edmunds guide from 88 that gives the order form. So here is my spec out, not many ordered this way but you could. Base Celebrity 2 door sedan $10585. Add optional cloth bucket seats with console $257. Add 2.8 MFI V6 for $610. Add HD suspension for $28. Add tach for $90. Add 195/70 R14 blackwalls for $90. Add sport wheel covers for $65. Get credit of ($440) for 5 speed manual. Radio delete credit for $165. Grand total $11120. You have just created the fastest Celebrity for less than a Taurus base model. Make mine dark blue inside and out.

Oh, snap… One would’ve needed to have a desire for complete, automotive invisibility to choose the Caravelle over the Taurus or even the Celebrity for something like $600. I like the Caravelle. But wow.

If you are talking about the 3.3l V6 (3300) found in the 89-93 Century and Cutlass Ciera then I concur with your thoughts on them being so much better then the 3.8l in the taurus.

If you are talking about the GM 60 Degree engine(aka the 2.8l,3.1l,3100 and 3400) then those were just as bad with their intake manifold leaks (even before GM started to use Dex cool), timing chain cover coolant leaks and a strange oil leak that dripped down the back side of the transmission that was caused by a bad O ring attached to a cap that capped off the hole that the distributor went in back when that engine was carbed. After Multiport FI, a gear was left in place to turn the oil pump and the hole was capped off.

That engine was a cooling system nightmare.

In Ford’s case most of the Taurus sold were with the reliable Vulcan 3.0l V6

We had these at work, and I found them very pleasant, although I don’t know if I’d still feel that way if I owned one for many years. Nevertheless, they served well, and I never saw them fall apart the way some of the other vehicles in the fleet did – including the Lumina. In fact, there was a 1985 Celebrity, a former rental, that outlasted the rest of its sisters in the fleet, even ones that were newer and/or purchased new. At 13 years of age, it still looked and drove like new despite a life of fleet use. The fleet superintendent loved that particular car and raved about it; I couldn’t believe it when they finally let it go at age 15.

I bought a used 84 Celebrity wagon in 1988. An Iron Duke engine, it did have a few options but an uncomfortable bench seat in front. In some ways I loved it, but after one year of ownership I had replaced the AC condenser, AC hose assembly, water pump and some other petty crap. The steering rack was just starting to get intermittent.

Fairly decent at speed, but low speed and idle felt like it was as refined as farm machinery. I did think it was an attractive design for the time.

I sold it a year later for my original purchase price. I think that if I had kept it things would have gotten really ugly. I have a friend that put 200K or close to that on her 2.8 Eurosport, which wasn’t too shabby.

I always kind of liked the Eurosport wagon version of this car. The only A body I ever had any seat time in was an ’87 Pontiac 6000 V6. It was not an STE (an LE, if I recall), but was probably fairly similar to the Celebrity Eurosport in content. It was a comfortable, capable car. I drove an Accord at the time, but liked the A bodies if properly equipped. These were probably more relevant as Accord and Camry fighters than people gave them credit for. GM had finally hit the mark with these cars. It’s just unfortunate that they came on the heels of some truly terrible predecessors, and were then left to get stale before being restyled. I never have quite understood the mindset behind GM nomenclature during this period. Was the Lumina supposed to represent something that the Celebrity failed at? The Celebrity was a generally good car with a strong following, but its only significant restyle was an update to composite headlights, then it was phased out and replaced by a whole “new model”. Even more vexing to me is the disappearance of the Pontiac 6000 altogether, with no fanfair and no real direct replacement model (unless the now 2 and 4 door Grand Prix was the ” replacement”?). Pontiac received some pretty strong accolades for the 6000, especially in STE form, but again GM left it to wither on the vine, then unceremoniously let it disappear without ever breathing new life into it. In an even more mind boggling move GM allowed the Ciera and Century to hang around until 1996, if I’m not mistaken. As the article above rightly notes, these cars deserved a remodel 4 years in, and yet in 2 cases they got none for 8 years then disappeared, and in the other two guises were let to stick around and clutter up showrooms for 14 model years with very little updating. In ’96 I recall my then-local Chevy/Olds dealer pushing heavily discounted Cieras. Having 2 young kids at the time I pondered a Ciera wagon at many thousands below sticker. My then wife declared me insane, and when I really looked at the early 80’s styling and prehistoric ergonomics I had to side with her. One tidbit I remember well from that very brief perusal of inventory was that all the Ciera wagons on the lot I looked at were STILL equipped with wire wheel covers. In 1996! Talk about letting a model linger!!! I guess as long as Hertz was still ordering them GM figured somebody somewhere would still want to buy a 1982 model in the late 90’s?

These rusted worse than any other A-body and I never understood why. WAY worse. Like, cancerous swiss-cheese doors and fenders at 10 years old. There were loads of them around when I was a kid, but I really only remember them as beaters. They were really excellent vehicles to fill the beater role, because they cosmetically fell apart far more quickly than they mechanically fell apart. And when I picture “Celebrity” I imagine the final version with flush headlights – the early dual headlight ones were mostly gone by the mid-’90s.

The Olds and Buick variants aged much better, but it probably has more to do with ownership/usage than anything. By the late-’80s, most Celebrities were fleet cars and rentals. Government agencies loved these things and bought them up by the thousands, especially in white. And that awful baby blue like in your first picture! They ticked the box for “cheap nondescript 4-door sedan” better than almost any other car at the time.

It’s funny that the A-bodies were all “X” underneath yet were so much better, they even seemed to be better built. Dad and I both had Pontiac 6000 wagons in the ’90s, they were both 1984 models. While mine was a POS, my Dad’s stripper brown one ran and ran and ran, you couldn’t kill it. Both wagons had a six. There was nothing wrong with these cars that a bit better build quality and perhaps modern fuel injection from the start couldn’t have fixed. They were one of the few bright spots for GM in the turbulent ’80s.

Here in the salty Midwest I see more battered, rusty ol’ A-Bodies than Camrys or anything of that time period, heck I see them more than later Hondas, of course most are Buick Centurys that were owned by elders with a few Cieras thrown in.

I bought a Celebrity Eurosport Wagon in 1988. It was the first brand new car I owned. I really, really wanted to like that car. I chose it over a new Taurus wagon based on space efficiency and handling (the Taurus had really numb steering and brakes that were an on-off switch), and over a one year old Volvo box wagon based on price and ease of use (it takes something like 4 steps to fold the second seat in a Volvo, one in the Celebrity).

So for all my careful comparison shopping I got a POS. It had the 2.8 V6 and we had the coolant leaks and the oil leaks AND constant nagging electronic issues. It ate through front brake pads like crazy. The transmission died at 53K miles. It got replaced with a Camry. I’m sure I was not the only one.

I’ve heard so many horror stories about the Iron Duke but can’t personally speak ill will of it, never having owned a car with the Iron Duke in it.

I’ve owned two Celebrity cars now and both had the 2.8L V6 in them and I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have any other way. The 2.8 was a perfect match for the Celebrity. I’d assume that the Iron Duke would have been an under-performer for the Celebrity due to the car’s weight.

I’d still have one or both of my Celebrity cars today if I had my way.

Both the A body cars and the Iron Duke engines were pretty good to our family. One Pontiac 6000, one Celebrity wagon, one Buick Century (also a couple of N-body Pontiac Grand Ams) between my wife and I, her parents and our siblings.

They weren’t tire burners, but could get out of their own way when flogged and were also pretty good on fuel. We did have one that developed a rod knock, but the car was over 10 years old at the time. Because the body was still decent, we replaced the engine with a junkyard one and got several more years of reliable service. All of our Iron Dukes were ’85 to 87 models with TBI and THM125 3-speed automatics.

I personally miss the ’86 Celebrity wagon fairly often. It was white with wood grain and a red velour interior. Excellent space utilization and user-friendly. Purchased for $1500 in ’95 and served admirably until 2001. Curse that rust monster!

I do not defend the general crapitude of many GM cars of the 80’s, but I’ve got nothing but respect for the Celebrity. I rode in many growing up, drove one as a rental, had friends whose parents owned, liked, then passed their Celebrities to my friends. The 2-door was no 80’s Chevelle (looks or otherwise), but I liked the sedan and wagon from day one. My family didn’t own a FWD Chevy A-Body of this generation (we got an early-90’s Olds Cutlass Ciera), but as William has pointed out, this was Chevy’s last well-executed, popular, mainstream sedan for a long time. Probably decades. These *are* my 80’s kidhood.

I have a celebrity as well, its a bare bones car that has served my family for 18 years, 164,000 mi. Its on its second engine but the car rides like a dream. Faded paint typical gm 80s interior. The 2.5l is a little torque monster, engine never gave a lick of problem nor did the thm125c. Going ro restore it one day. Love that car.

These were truly horrible products even by GM standards. I had a roommate who had one of these and I swear you could hear the car disassemble itself while sitting in a parking space. This car was so cheaply made and engineered that it was an embarrassment. I thought the J and X cars were built to a low budget, but these Chevrolets were awful. Oddly the Olds and Buick models were better after their c-pillar change, but nothing could make those era Celebrities anything other than junk.